Why do customers shop at local small businesses?
– Stephanie Rabiner is a contributor to FindLaw’s Free Enterprise blog. FindLaw is a Thomson Reuters publication. This article originally appeared here. –
Despite hard times and shrinking profits, Americans still shop at locally owned, independent retailers.
A new small business survey from American Express polled 1,000 consumers aged 18 and older. Ninety-three percent of respondents believe that it’s important to support local small businesses. And on average, they spend about one third of their monthly discretionary income at these stores.
How can you capitalize on this information?
Survey respondents primarily shop at small businesses because of friendly employees and product knowledge.
Additionally, 87 percent of respondents share favorable opinions about a business, while only 69 percent share negative feedback. The majority use word of mouth and social media. Only 13 percent use sites like Yelp! and Citysearch.
Do you already have the right employees with the right knowledge? If so, the small business survey seems to suggest that you should work on peer-to-peer advertising. Yelp! receives a significant amount of attention these days, but social networking appears to be a better use of resources.
Does your business have a Facebook? A Twitter account? You can use both to advertise specials, run contests, or let your customers know about new stock. Retweets and “Likes” are also the modern day “word of mouth.”
For customers who are not technologically inclined, you could also consider a referral program. Offer a small discount to those who send business your way.
If you learn anything from the small business survey, it’s this:
You should look for ways to use your high rate of customer satisfaction as a marketing tool. Encourage your repeat customers to share the love, and in return, maybe offer to share a little wealth.
Related FindLaw articles:
New FTC Online Advertising Rules Coming (FindLaw’s Free Enterprise)
Facebook Offers $50 in Free Ads to Small Biz (FindLaw’s Free Enterprise)
Should Your Business Get a Google+ Page? (FindLaw’s Free Enterprise)
PRESS DIGEST - Financial Times - Oct 18
G4S is set to become one of the world’s biggest
employers after agreeing to buy ISS , the Danish
services provider, in an ambitious 5.2 billion pound ($8.2
billion) deal that seeks to create a global leader in
outsourcing with combined staff of 1.17 million.BP TO END PAYMENTS TO OIL SPILL FUND EARLYBP will be able to cease payments into a $20 billion
compensation fund to help meet claims from last year’s Gulf of
Mexico oil spill one year earlier than expected after striking
an out-of-court settlement with Anadarko Petroleum .OLYMPUS TENSIONS RISE AMID THREAT OF LEGAL ACTIONThe ousted chief executive of Olympus has taken his
case to the Britain’s white-collar crime agency while the
Japanese camera maker - whose shares slid a further 24 percent
over the debacle - said it could take legal action against him.IMPROVEMENT IN U.S. MORTGAGE DELINQUENCIES ENDSFears about the health of U.S. consumer balance sheets grew
on Monday as Citigroup and Wells Fargo joined
JPMorgan Chase in reporting new signs that homeowners
and credit-card borrowers are falling behind on their payments.SAINT GEORGE DROPS DTZ TAKEOVER PLANSDTZ’s biggest shareholder has scrapped plans to take
the global property consultancy private after more than five
months of takeover talks, raising questions about the future of
the debt-laden company.BLACKBERRY SAYS SORRY WITH APPS REWARDResearch In Motion is to give BlackBerry users more
than $100 worth of free applications as a way of apologising for
the outage that took down the smartphone’s email service for
three days last week across many parts of the world.IPHONE 4 SALES HIT RECORD ON LAUNCHApple has sold a record 4 million of its latest
incarnation of the iPhone in its first three days on sale in
spite of criticism that the new product was a more limited
technological leap forward than its predecessors.FRENCH COURT RULES L’OREAL HEIRESS MENTALLY UNFITLiliane Bettencourt, the 88-year-old L’Oreal
heiress who is France’s richest woman, has lost her bitter
three-year battle against her own daughter Francoise
Meyers-Bettencourt to retain control of her 15 billion euros
($21 billion) fortune.
US House leader presses Obama on China currency bill
The Obama administration has avoided taking a direct
position but has said Congress should take care that any
legislation it passes to put pressure on China to revalue its
currency be consistent with global trade rules.It has not said how the legislation being considered in the
Senate might violate WTO rules.
